Information : Diminishing Manufacturing Sources Detection

As manufacturers cease production of items or raw materials, which are needed for current weapon systems, Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Material Shortages (DMSMS) will present a problem for the majority of the military systems that rely on these components or raw materials currently due for phase-out over the next several years. Dependent on several factors including complexity of the functionality, costs associated with a redesign effort can range from $150,000 to $500,000 per instance, and the cost to replace discontinued components with available alternate sources averages about $20,000 per instance. The Diminishing Manufacturing Sources (DMS) Technology Center at Crane Division-Naval Surface Warfare Center was designated as the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s (NSWC’s) leader and center of technical expertise on DMS issues in 1996. As an overall goal of providing Life Cycle Sustainment for any given system, the DMS Technology Center’s approach is to integrate analysis processes to identify current availability; obsolescence; supply; reliability; installation and improvement schedules; operating and support costs problems, and to provide viable economic solutions. The goals of this effort are to:

Reduce acquisition time and costs, and increase affordability while maintaining mission readiness.

Reduce life-cycle support costs while increasing availability

Mitigate the implementation risks of transitioning state-of-the-art technology, and reduce total ownership costs of Department of Defense (DOD) systems, which in turn increases their Return on Investment (ROI).